Shot Ukrainian mayor undergoes surgery in Israel

The Jewish mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city underwent surgery in an Israeli hospital for a gunshot wound from a suspected assassination attempt.

Elisha Hospital in Haifa said in a statement Tuesday that the operation on Gennady Kernes, who heads the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, was successful and no further surgery will be required. He was transferred later on Tuesday to the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa.

Kernes was flown to Israel on Tuesday morning after being shot in the neck a day earlier during his routine morning jog.

“Israeli doctors arrived last night, praised our doctors’ work and recommended he be transferred for treatment in Israel,” Kharkiv City Council member Yuri Sidorenko told Interfax Ukraine. “The doctors deemed his condition to be safe for travel and at 3:20 a.m. his plane took off from Kharkiv.”

Ukrainian officials have opened an investigation into the shooting, according to Interfax.

Ukraine has seen deadly clashes between political opponents since the eruption in November of a revolution that started with protests over then-President Viktor Yanukovych’s perceived pro-Russian policies. Yanukovych was ousted from power in February and replaced with an interim government that has scheduled elections for next month.

Kernes reportedly has played a major role in the confrontations between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian forces in the city. He had been a supporter of Yanukovych and then changed his stance, saying he does not support the pro-Russia insurgents or the annexation of Ukrainian territory.

Several anti-Semitic attacks, including two stabbings and two attempts to torch synagogues, have occurred since November in Ukraine, a country with relatively low levels of anti-Semitic violence.

According to the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, the 2009 election campaign in which Kernes became mayor was mired with anti-Semitic hate speech targeting him and other Jewish candidates.

The Canadian Jewish News (CJN) is a not for profit media organization, serving the Jewish community, by providing a platform for diverse points of view, on subjects of interest and relevance. With an audited circulation of nearly 32,000, and read by more than 100,000 people each week, The CJN is Canada's largest award-winning weekly Jewish newspaper.